Kenya has a Tropical Continental climate. This means that there are 2 distinct seasons in Kenya – a very warm, dry season and a hot, wet season.
Kenya is an LEDC – So what is the evidence?
Wealth of a country is given by GNP (Gross national product) per capita. GNP per capita is the money earned by a country divided by its population. An obvious explanation to why Kenya is an LEDC is that the GNP per capita for Kenya is $340 whereas the GNP per capita for Great Britain is $16,750.
However, wealth on its own should not be used to determine whether a country is rich or poor. The reason for this is that money on its own does not determine that much. In any country there are going to be wealthy parts of the country and poorer parts of the country. Even in Kenya, there are many, many wealthy people.
Development Indicators
These are methods used to measure development. We can compare different development Indicators.
To do my ranking table I have chosen five countries to put n the table. I have also put 5 development Indicators in table 1. These Indicators are GNP, Birth rate, Death rate, Life expectancy and Natural population growth. I then found the relevant statistic for each country which was then wrote into the table. I then ranked each country, with one being the best situation for that indicator. This was done with 5 development indicators. After doing this, I worked out a total rank for every country. The higher the total ranking points, the less developed the country.
I am now going to compare Kenya to the UK to show that Kenya is an LEDC. I will choose 3 development indicators from my ranking table to compare Kenya to the UK.
The first indicator I am going to use is birth rate. Birth rate is the number of live births per 1000 people per year. The birth rate in the UK is 14 whereas in Kenya it is 47. In Kenya they have more babies they already initially know that 50% of there babies will die. Furthermore there is a lack of contraception and lack of education on how to use contraception, whereas in the UK there is a better education system so this does not happen as regular. Lack of Health care in Kenya also contributes as there is no option for abortion or contraceptives readily available, however in the UK healthy care is more advanced so these things are available. Kenyans also have large families because they want children to go to work for money, compares to the UK, people have the option because they earn enough money.
The second indicator I am going to use is Life expectancy. Life expectancy is the average number of years a new born baby is expected to live. The life expectancy in the UK is male: 73 and female: 79 whereas in Kenya it is male: 59 and female: 63. in Kenya there is a lower life expectancy because diseases such as HIV and aids are in parts of the country. Medical treatment is not advanced enough in Kenya to treat patients, whereas in the UK aids and HIV are rare because of advanced health care over Kenya. Another reason is that Kenyans do not get as much money compared to people in the UK. Lack of income in Kenya can lead to food shortages meaning an unhealthy lifestyle.
The last indicator I am going to use is GNP per capita. GNP per capita is the value of goods and services produces in a country in one year divided by the number of people living in the country, obtaining a value per head. The GNP per capita in the UK is $16,750 whereas in Kenya it is $340. In Kenya there is a much lower GNP because the economic sector is different there. Kenya contains a large amount of quite low paid primary (agriculture) and tertiary (tourism) jobs. On the other hand, the UK is more technologically advanced, providing higher paying jobs and a large amount of expensive exports and goods being produced. In Kenya a lot more goods will be imported rather than exported, so trade levels will not be as good as the UK. The UK trades with countries all around the world, exporting a lot more goods.
Graph 1, 'Kenya's Employment Structure' shows that most people are employed in the Primary Industry. This shows that Kenya is poor because the majority of MEDC's have a large tertiary industry, with primary being the lowest. It also shows that Kenya is not a wealthy enough country to import enough goods to the country, so has to result in having a large primary industry (with a lot of agriculture) to cater for the needs of Kenyans.
Tourism in Kenya is very important to the economy. Graph 1 shows the major income sources of Kenya. It is clearly shown that at 35%, Tourism is the largest source of income that Kenya has. This is followed by 28% Agriculture, 25% Industry and 12% from other services.
Graph 1 shows that a lot of people are employed in tourism (12%). This shows that the country is without doubt very popular as a tourist destination. A lot of tourists means the country will earn a lot of money, with Graph 2 proves.
